One of the strange things about communication technology as a field of consumer trends is how tightly woven together commerce and culture are. In, say, music and fashion, early adapters search and discover new trends when they're in the rough--an unsigned band or an unheard-of designer. If the early adapters were right, the band will get a record deal, the designer will set up a fashion house and eventually get copied by the likes of H&M. By that time the early adapters will have jumped ship, with counter cultural types rolling their eyes at the commercialization (watering down, corporatization, consolidation, suburbanization, cheapening) of the trend.
But with communication technology, the marketing and the trend are often the same thing--using Twitter to tell your friends about a product or to further your business interests comes as early in the trend as telling them about your hangover. Commercial applications and "style statements" are meant to go hand-in-hand. The early adapter is not counter cultural; they're just first in line at the cashier.
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